In 2011, affiliates of Warburg Pincus bought Rural/Metro for about $438 million in an all-cash deal excluding debt.The deal was funded by $525 million in new debt financing, with the reminder of the purchase price coming from Warburg's affiliates.

This is your typical Mitt Romney play. Basically a private equity firm bought what was probably a profitable company, loaded them up with an unreasonable amount of debt, and now they can't pay their loans so they are declaring bankruptcy.

The Scottsdale, Arizona-based company also intends to renegotiate unprofitable contracts and free up capital for investments through the bankruptcy process, according to the filings.

Probably using bankruptcy to raid the pension funds, layoff more people and reduce salaries to existing employees.

My friends in EMS have called Rural Metro, Rural Uh-Oh for years. Basically even before the buyout management was useless and inept. They have been losing contracts in my state left and right. You know there is something wrong when a county will spend millions to start their own EMS service rather than renew a Rural Metro contract.

russlar:it blows my mind that something so basic a need as ambulance service can be operated as a for-profit entity. this is why our health-care costs are bananas.

This has been normal for years. It was seen as cheaper to do that maintain a city or local service. In my small town the Ambulance Service is provided by the volunteer fire department, is very competent and will waive any fees if you simply cannot afford it. Try doing that with one of these private services.

With this I wonder if more smaller municipalities will beef up/start up services?

Tom_Slick:My friends in EMS have called Rural Metro, Rural Uh-Oh for years. Basically even before the buyout management was useless and inept. They have been losing contracts in my state left and right. You know there is something wrong when a county will spend millions to start their own EMS service rather than renew a Rural Metro contract.

bdub77: Probably using bankruptcy to raid the pension funds

AFAIK There is no company pension at Rural Metro, my friend who worked there had a Fidelity 401k. So no pension raiding.

KrmtDfrog:russlar: it blows my mind that something so basic a need as ambulance service can be operated as a for-profit entity. this is why our health-care costs are bananas.

no kidding. why is an emergency medical transportation service being ran as a for-profit?

Some are, some aren't. In the cases where for-profit companies are running the ambulance service, it's probably done to save money. The city/county/whoever puts the contract up for bid and the lowest bidder gets the contract. That removes the responsibility and liability from the government and puts it in the hands of the private contractor. The contractor can run the service cheaper than the government by cutting corners and paying their employees crappy wages.

That being said, it's getting damn hard to keep ambulances in the black whether they are for-profit or not. Ours is a non-profit, all-volunteer service. We are doing okay for now, but the only reason for that is that the majority of our calls are to the local nursing home, and all of those people have medicaid, so we always get paid on those runs. If a call is to anywhere other than the nursing home, it's about 50-50. You might get paid, you might not. A huge portion of this country is uninsured and, if they don't have insurance, good farking luck collecting. A few will make payments and get it paid eventually, but most don't even bother. We really try to work with people too. We've had people pay as little as $10/month until their bill is paid, and as long as they are making an effort we don't charge any interest or harass them.

To make matters worse, those uninsured people tend to be poorer and have more untreated medical issues as well and are, therefore, far more likely to end up needing the amber lamps eventually. You don't get many calls to the nice part of town for a 400 lb. diabetic with a gangrenous foot. It gets worse and worse every single year. It's really hard to make any money when only half (or less) of your customers pay their damn bills.

DarkSoulNoHope:Tom_Slick: My friends in EMS have called Rural Metro, Rural Uh-Oh for years. Basically even before the buyout management was useless and inept. They have been losing contracts in my state left and right. You know there is something wrong when a county will spend millions to start their own EMS service rather than renew a Rural Metro contract.

bdub77: Probably using bankruptcy to raid the pension funds

AFAIK There is no company pension at Rural Metro, my friend who worked there had a Fidelity 401k. So no pension raiding.

Well then, just a basic company raiding then.

You can try all you want to pin this on greedy rich people sitting around in a dark, smoke-filled room, twirling their mustaches and giving an evil laugh as they screw over the ambulance company, but this time it's actually the other end of the spectrum doing the screwing. It's the poor people without insurance using the service and not paying. They may not have any evil intent, it may not be purposeful or willful, but the end result is the same.

mod3072:You can try all you want to pin this on greedy rich people sitting around in a dark, smoke-filled room, twirling their mustaches and giving an evil laugh as they screw over the ambulance company, but this time it's actually the other end of the spectrum doing the screwing. It's the poor people without insurance using the service and not paying. They may not have any evil intent, it may not be purposeful or willful, but the end result is the same.

As a former employee of the company in TFA, I can tell you it's actually a mixture of both. Rural/Metro has lost a LOT of it's long-term contracts to AMR and up-start municipal ambulance services because they don't want to play nicely with cities. They also skimp on equipping their units, and providing their EMTs and Paramedics with quality rigs and up to date equipment (I was still rocking a Lifepak 10 and a second line Propaq NIBP Machine on a unit used to perform Critical Care Transports FFS before I quit - doing 9-leads on a LP10 was fun.)

Metro burned a LOT of their bridges. They also had a habit of underbidding municipal contracts in order to get them in areas where the expected income from 911 operations would have been nowhere near enough to break even.

hardinparamedic:mod3072: You can try all you want to pin this on greedy rich people sitting around in a dark, smoke-filled room, twirling their mustaches and giving an evil laugh as they screw over the ambulance company, but this time it's actually the other end of the spectrum doing the screwing. It's the poor people without insurance using the service and not paying. They may not have any evil intent, it may not be purposeful or willful, but the end result is the same.

As a former employee of the company in TFA, I can tell you it's actually a mixture of both. Rural/Metro has lost a LOT of it's long-term contracts to AMR and up-start municipal ambulance services because they don't want to play nicely with cities. They also skimp on equipping their units, and providing their EMTs and Paramedics with quality rigs and up to date equipment (I was still rocking a Lifepak 10 and a second line Propaq NIBP Machine on a unit used to perform Critical Care Transports FFS before I quit - doing 9-leads on a LP10 was fun.)

Metro burned a LOT of their bridges. They also had a habit of underbidding municipal contracts in order to get them in areas where the expected income from 911 operations would have been nowhere near enough to break even.

bdub77:In 2011, affiliates of Warburg Pincus bought Rural/Metro for about $438 million in an all-cash deal excluding debt.The deal was funded by $525 million in new debt financing, with the reminder of the purchase price coming from Warburg's affiliates.

This is your typical Mitt Romney play. Basically a private equity firm bought what was probably a profitable company, loaded them up with an unreasonable amount of debt, and now they can't pay their loans so they are declaring bankruptcy.

The Scottsdale, Arizona-based company also intends to renegotiate unprofitable contracts and free up capital for investments through the bankruptcy process, according to the filings.

Probably using bankruptcy to raid the pension funds, layoff more people and reduce salaries to existing employees.

bdub77:In 2011, affiliates of Warburg Pincus bought Rural/Metro for about $438 million in an all-cash deal excluding debt.The deal was funded by $525 million in new debt financing, with the reminder of the purchase price coming from Warburg's affiliates.

This is your typical Mitt Romney play. Basically a private equity firm bought what was probably a profitable company, loaded them up with an unreasonable amount of debt, and now they can't pay their loans so they are declaring bankruptcy.

The Scottsdale, Arizona-based company also intends to renegotiate unprofitable contracts and free up capital for investments through the bankruptcy process, according to the filings.

Probably using bankruptcy to raid the pension funds, layoff more people and reduce salaries to existing employees.

F*cking scum.

This. Leveraged buyouts of this type should not be eligible for bankruptcy, and the personal assets of the bankers who arranged it should be seized to help pay the debt off.

A company that according to the article has about the same amount of assets as liabilities, including over $500 million in assets, is declaring bankruptcy so it can renegotiate contracts and look better to investors?

Emposter:A company that according to the article has about the same amount of assets as liabilities, including over $500 million in assets, is declaring bankruptcy so it can renegotiate contracts and look better to investors?

It's not going to be able to renegotiate the contracts it already has in place, unless some kind of massive change in the laws of the United States took place last night. In addition, a LOT of their contract locations are looking at breach of contract lawsuits from municipal governments if they attempt to do so.

KrmtDfrog:no kidding. why is an emergency medical transportation service being ran as a for-profit?

Because there are towns and cities who think it is both a good idea and cheaper to pay a private company to run the local ambulance service. See: Scottsdale, AZ.

Why yes, that is the same Scottsdale where Rural/Metro is headquartered.. seeing as Rural/Metro ran both the town's ambulance service and their fire department... for a fee, of course.

Why yes, Scottsdale city officials once thought it was both cheaper and good idea to pay a private company to run the town's ambulance service and their fire department.. rather than having either a volunteer fire department or a city-run fire department like the rest of "the big kids in the neighborhood" (every other large city in the Phoenix Metro Area).

Heck, this was one of Rural/Metro's biggest selling points: "Look at us!! We run the Fire Department and the Ambulance Service in a city of 200k+ people!! We are teh awesum!!!1111oneone"...

... until Rural/Metro started taking 15+ minutes to get to a fire or emergency... unlike *yuck* Phoenix where the fire department has a rule that they'll be there in 5 minutes or less... and then some kid dies because of Rural/Metro incompetence cheapness cost-effectiveness (read: "sorry, we don't have a fire station way up north in the boonies because it's too expensive").

Emposter:A company that according to the article has about the same amount of assets as liabilities, including over $500 million in assets, is declaring bankruptcy so it can renegotiate contracts and look better to investors?

When did bankruptcy for profit become an allowable business plan?

Since about 1986 when Michael Milliken and Chainsaw Al perfected the practice.

bdub77:In 2011, affiliates of Warburg Pincus bought Rural/Metro for about $438 million in an all-cash deal excluding debt.The deal was funded by $525 million in new debt financing, with the reminder of the purchase price coming from Warburg's affiliates.

This is your typical Mitt Romney play. Basically a private equity firm bought what was probably a profitable company, loaded them up with an unreasonable amount of debt, and now they can't pay their loans so they are declaring bankruptcy.

The Scottsdale, Arizona-based company also intends to renegotiate unprofitable contracts and free up capital for investments through the bankruptcy process, according to the filings.

Probably using bankruptcy to raid the pension funds, layoff more people and reduce salaries to existing employees.

firefly212:Dr.Mxyzptlk.: Cybernetic: Dr.Mxyzptlk.: Probably not as big of a crook as this guy.[static4.businessinsider.com image 400x300]

Goggle MF Jon Corzine ex Republican congressman.

And by "Republican congressman," you obviously meant "Democrat senator".

"Shhhhhhhhhhh....that's the only way you'll get them to read."

I thought he was a Governor of NJ, was he also a Senator?

I think that he's trying to play off the idea that people (in his mind) believe that all Democrats are immune to corruption and/or greed. Of course that simply is not true, most politicians have proven that no matter what side they come from, they can still be arseholes.

DarkSoulNoHope:I think that he's trying to play off the idea that people (in his mind) believe that all Democrats are immune to corruption and/or greed. Of course that simply is not true, most politicians have proven that no matter what side they come from, they can still be arseholes.

espiaboricua:KrmtDfrog:no kidding. why is an emergency medical transportation service being ran as a for-profit?

Because there are towns and cities who think it is both a good idea and cheaper to pay a private company to run the local ambulance service. See: Scottsdale, AZ.

Why yes, that is the same Scottsdale where Rural/Metro is headquartered.. seeing as Rural/Metro ran both the town's ambulance service and their fire department... for a fee, of course.

Why yes, Scottsdale city officials once thought it was both cheaper and good idea to pay a private company to run the town's ambulance service and their fire department.. rather than having either a volunteer fire department or a city-run fire department like the rest of "the big kids in the neighborhood" (every other large city in the Phoenix Metro Area).

Heck, this was one of Rural/Metro's biggest selling points: "Look at us!! We run the Fire Department and the Ambulance Service in a city of 200k+ people!! We are teh awesum!!!1111oneone"...

... until Rural/Metro started taking 15+ minutes to get to a fire or emergency... unlike *yuck* Phoenix where the fire department has a rule that they'll be there in 5 minutes or less... and then some kid dies because of Rural/Metro incompetence cheapness cost-effectiveness (read: "sorry, we don't have a fire station way up north in the boonies because it's too expensive").

Good friends of mine are on the volunteer fire department two towns over. Me and my bud are hanging out one minute on his side-by-side and the next we get toned out and are jamming gears in the old Ford engine. After helping move hoses and spray a brush fire (aiding the cause, despite not being a fireman) I've got a huge amount of respect for people who will go and put their lives at risk for nothing more than a few beers.

I guess that's one case where you know the character of a person by how much money he gets doing the job he loves.

DarkSoulNoHope:firefly212: Dr.Mxyzptlk.: Cybernetic: Dr.Mxyzptlk.: Probably not as big of a crook as this guy.[static4.businessinsider.com image 400x300]

Goggle MF Jon Corzine ex Republican congressman.

And by "Republican congressman," you obviously meant "Democrat senator".

"Shhhhhhhhhhh....that's the only way you'll get them to read."

I thought he was a Governor of NJ, was he also a Senator?

I think that he's trying to play off the idea that people (in his mind) believe that all Democrats are immune to corruption and/or greed. Of course that simply is not true, most politicians have proven that no matter what side they come from, they can still be arseholes.

He was a senator from 2001 - 2006, and then governor from 2006 - 2010.